How Fit Do You Need to Be to Qualify for Regionals?

This is part 2 in our statistical breakdown of the CrossFit Open. You can read part 1 here.

Statistically speaking…

The short answer: you have to be pretty damn fit.

We often hear the “top 1%” stat thrown around. Turns out, it’s lower than that. There are 720 individual athletes across nine regions. With 307,540 athletes completing all six WODs (both RX and scaled) it’s more like 0.2%.

If you want to get really technical, since only athletes completing WODs RX are eligible, it’s more like 0.4%. So let’s just settle on the top 1/2 percent.

OK, but put that in terms of actual fitness.

See Figures 1 and 2 below, where we’ve charted the average performance on each WOD across the 18 regions so you can see how you stack up.

The bottom line: the average finish in every region on every workout is in the top 100 regionally, male and female. Many are in the top 50.

Consistency is key. You can have an Ok WOD, and if you’re Josh Bridges you can have one bad WOD like his 337th place finish on 18.2a, but unless you plan on getting top 10 on every other workout you won’t make it, like Dakota Rager.

What about them old people?

Competing for the title of Fittest on Earth is a young person’s game, but it’s not as young as you might think.

The average age of a male qualifier from both the Canada East and Mid Atlantic Regions is 26-years-old, which is the youngest. The oldest average is 29 in the West Region.

For the women, the youngest regions are Asia, Europe North and South Central, which all tied at 27-years-old. The oldest was 31 in the West Region. As you can see though, only four years age difference separates all the region and non are under 25.

As far as the true masters are concerned, 36 Masters athletes qualified for Regionals — 8 men and 28 women. Eight female athletes were in the top 100 worldwide.

FUN FACT: The oldest qualifier is 42-year-old Helen Harding from the Australasia Region. The oldest male is 38-year-old Alexandre Jolivet from the South West Region.

Fig. 1: Average Female Performances

A region by region analysis of how the qualifying athletes performed on average across the six scored events.

1

2018 CrossFit Open

2

18.1

18.2

18.2a

18.3

18.4

18.5

3

SCORE

PLACE

SCORE

PLACE

SCORE

PLACE

SCORE

PLACE

SCORE

PLACE

SCORE

PLACE

4

West Regional

West

387

38

4:46

41

223

69

17:35

41

8:22

39

166

31

5

Canada West

378

6

4:44

5

212

29

17:39

10

8:30

5

162

6

6

South Regional

South West

383

17

4:56

22

217

53

17:46

17

8:34

21

159

17

7

South Central

380

21

4:44

19

218

61

18:00

22

8:06

17

163

22

8

Central Regional

North Central

385

18

4:49

29

221

61

17:46

27

8:41

25

161

24

9

Central East

383

20

4:58

41

224

45

17:51

25

8:22

21

166

14

10

Atlantic Regional

Mid Atlantic

387

21

4:41

25

216

73

17:58

38

8:21

20

165

18

11

South East

383

20

4:58

41

224

45

18:00

25

8:22

21

166

14

12

East Regional

Canada East

395

13

4:39

19

230

20

17:28

14

7:59

10

170

12

13

North East

383

28

4:50

38

226

38

18:15

65

8:44

33

164

27

14

Meridian Regional

Middle East Africa

369

16

5:08

16

217

17

18:21

14

8:55

13

152

15

15

Europe South

377

21

4:53

17

216

28

18:27

18

8:59

16

155

15

16

Pacific Regional

Asia

358

12

5:11

16

203

28

18:48

9

9:07

7

146

9

17

Australasia

382

28

4:50

47

217

54

17:45

30

8:33

26

161

28

18

Europe Regional

Europe North

393

31

4:43

37

226

29

17:33

20

7:58

17

161

22

19

Europe Central

383

32

4:51

34

220

28

18:11

23

8:37

18

158

17

20

Latin America Regional

Central America

356

13

5:17

19

217

23

19:16

21

9:26

20

150

18

21

South America

367

25

4:55

29

221

41

18:53

27

9:06

25

163

20

Fig. 2: Average Male Performance

A region by region analysis of how the qualifying athletes performed on average across the six scored events.